Comic book heroes, Jedi knights, and alien crop circles led the way
at the summer box office this year which set a new record, thanks mostly
to higher ticket prices. North American grosses from Memorial Day weekend
to the Labor Day frame (considered the traditional summer moviegoing season)
totaled $3.14 billion, according to Exhibitor Relations, inching 2.5% ahead
of 2001's $3.06 billion over the same period. Admissions, however, were
off a tick from the summer of Shrek.

Sequels, Hollywood's summer staple, were abundant but were met with
mixed results. Austin Powers in Goldmember
was the standout performer becoming the biggest installment yet in the
five-year-old franchise. However, most sequels failed to outgross their
predecessors like Rush Hour 2, American
Pie 2, and The Mummy Returns
did last summer. Star Wars Episode II
and Men in Black II were the biggest
second-parters, but their tallies fell somewhat short of industry expectations
given their huge marketing budgets. The pricey Stuart
Little 2 has taken in less than half of the $140M of the 1999
original.

A new generation of action heroes made their mark as audiences made
blockbuster hits out of Vin Diesel's XXX,
Matt Damon's The Bourne Identity and
Ben Affleck's The Sum of All Fears.
Meanwhile, action stars of summers past like Harrison Ford and Nicolas
Cage, bombed with their latest entries K-19: The
Widowmaker and Windtalkers,
respectively.

Sony Pictures was the market leader from the beginning with Spider-Man
soaring above even the loftiest expectations. The webcrawler started the
summer off with a bang with its record $114.8M opening weekend and set
several speed records on it way to a $403.7M final putting it at number
five on the all-time list. The studio also released Men
in Black II, XXX, and Adam
Sandler's Mr. Deeds which proved that
the comedian wasn't yesterday's news after Little
Nicky. Before the end of summer, those hits helped carry Sony
past the $1 billion mark in year-to-date grosses putting it on track to
possibly have the biggest year ever for a studio.

There was no bigger surprise in the summer than the longevity of the
independent hit comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
The $5M film opened in late April with less than $600,000 from 108 theaters
sneaking into the number 20 spot. It then stuck around the top 20 all summer
and has spent the last three weekends at number two grossing over $100M
along the way. The $150M barrier is sure to fall this fall and the sky
is the limit after that. IFC Films continues to do a brilliant job distributing
the still-expanding hit and has put itself on the map as a serious contender
in the business. Greek Wedding has
succeeded in part by appealing to audiences not catered to by other summer
flicks. While other studios courted young males with green goblins and
the dark side of the force, IFC brought in women, seniors, and whole families
to its Wedding reception. Plus the
ethnic comedy appealed to people of all backgrounds who could relate to
the cross-cultural storyline.

Next summer will undoubtedly bring more sequels, more surprises, and
maybe even another record. Studios have already earmarked tentpole pictures
for key weekends - X-Men 2 on May 2,
The Matrix Reloaded on May 15, The
Hulk on June 20, and Terminator 3
on July 2. It looks like franchise fever will never stop!